The Fetish Folk Of West Africa

Paperback | February 5, 2012

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912. Excerpt: ... XV FETISHISM AND THE CROSS DURING my study of the language of the Fang I was one day talking to a young boy and searching for a better word for mercy than the very vague word in general use. He was a bright lad, with beautiful eyes and frank manner. I said to him: "A man was hunting in the forest, when he discovered a woman of a neighbouring town alone in her garden. He decided to steal her and add her to the number of his wives. He caught her and tied a bush-rope around her, and himself holding the end of it he made her walk ahead of him through the forest towards his town. On the way, the woman, recovering from her first fright, began to cry and to plead with him to let her go. She told him that she had three little children and that the youngest was sick and would probably die without its mother. The man for some time hardened his heart, but the woman continued to plead and to cry more bitterly. Then at last the man's heart was softened. He began to think that perhaps two wives were enough for the present; and he let the woman go. "Now, when he reaches his town and tells the people what he has done what will they say about him t" Promptly came the answer: "They will call him a fool.". "Why will they call him a fool t" I asked. "Because he is not a real man. He has a soft heart like a woman's heart. All women are fools." "And how about small boys!" I asked. "Oh," said he, "small boys are very much like woaien; but of course we will be real men wheu we grow up.:' Not that the African is destitute of the instinct of humanity--by no means; but a false ideal calls for the repression of his best instincts. Iu the course of a war between two villages, in which I knew nearly all the people, a young man named Minkoa, a bright and rather manly young fellow, was ...

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912. Excerpt: ... XV FETISHISM AND THE CROSS DURING my study of the language of the Fang I was one day talking to a young boy and searching for ...